Friday, December 29, 2017

"One of Oklahoma's most wanted fugitives turned himself in last week after nearly 30 years on the run," the News on 6 reports.

Gary Boergermann was working street crimes for the Tulsa Police Department back in 1987 when he and his partner first arrested Ronald Lyons at his Tulsa home near 11th and Harvard. "We got an anonymous tip that there was a Broken Arrow school teacher possibly selling drugs to students,” said Boergermann. “And we ran him and he happened to have a traffic warrant for his arrest."

Boergerman and his partner knocked on the door to question Lyons. They say they saw drugs on the coffee table and got permission to search the rest of the house. During their search, they say they found more drugs and nude photos of some of his students.

"Back then they were old Polaroid pictures and they had all the dates on the film," said Boergermann.

Boergerman said it took a lot of time to identify the girls from Broken Arrow School yearbooks and gather information on the case. ... Tulsa Police Department spent many hours trying to get some of the students to talk but many of them didn't want to, including Melody Teague, who investigators believe hung herself in fear that she would be called to testify against Lyons.

"She said ‘I don’t want to talk about it,’ ‘I said why?’ She said ‘he'll know.’ I said “What do you mean he will know?’ ‘She said he knows everything.’"

Boergermann said they were never able to connect Teague’s death to Lyons. "We were never to put that case with him or any of the charges you know because he didn't force her to do it,” said Boergermann. “I just think she just felt so bad and guilty that she did." ...

"Whether he's had a real terrible 30 years or a real great 30 years, that’s no concern he still needs to do his 9 years,” said Boergermann. “He hurt too many kids back in the day."

"The parents of 15 girls who said they were molested by a teacher's aide are suing Perry school officials for damages," The Oklahoman reports.

"The Perry Board of Education had many opportunities to resolve these matters and instead chose to ignore these innocent victims," said attorney Cameron Spradling, who is representing the plaintiffs. "The Perry Board of Education has failed its community and its taxpayers."

"She started hating school. Nobody would play with her. Up until a few months ago, she wouldn't even eat lunch, even though I would make it because she didn't want to eat alone. She's afraid to join a group in fear of rejection. It's hard for her," said her mom Teena Kennedy. ... "It was really rough when your kid is 6 or 7 and others are saying God made a mistake and they would rather not be alive, that's hard to hear as a mom. No child should ever feel that way."

"An elementary student was allegedly stabbed in the eye with a pencil by another student during school, according to the child’s parent," KFOR reports.

"It's hard to see my son cry and scared. I just want something more for him," Sarena Garner told News 4. "I just want to protect him, as a mother, and I expect these teachers to protect them because I leave them in their care."

Monday, December 11, 2017

"Interest in homeschooling has increased over the last decade, as what was once perceived as a marginal development has turned into a significant phenomenon," Garvey Musumunu and Ama Mazama write.

There has been, in recent years, a noticeable surge in African American involvement in the homeschooling movement as well. However, there continues to be a general paucity of research on the motivations of homeschooling Black parents. It is the purpose of this essay (1) to present empirical evidence regarding African American motivations for homeschooling; and (2) more specifically, to explore how parental concerns for safety are leading African American families to homeschooling. These concerns, the authors contend, bring to the fore a series of disturbing circumstances and preoccupations that are specific to African Americans.

"To indoctrinate all children from preschool forward with the lie that they could be trapped in the wrong body disrupts the very foundation of a child’s reality testing," writes pediatrician Michelle Cretella. "If they can’t trust the reality of their physical bodies, who or what can they trust? Transgender ideology in schools is psychological abuse that often leads to chemical castration, sterilization, and surgical mutilation."

Friday, December 8, 2017

"The state budget saves $1.24 for every dollar of tax credit issued to the Oklahoma Equal Opportunity Education Scholarship Act, according to an Oklahoma City University study released Friday," The Journal Record reported October 6.

The study is available here. The state's largest newspaper has an excellent editorial here. OCPA president Jonathan Small discusses it here.

Thursday, December 7, 2017

"Children are more than test scores," the Duncan Public Schools superintendent reminds us. "Test scores are a small snapshot of a school’s performance and not the only measure of a school’s overall impact on a student’s life."

"A controversial practice of shutting children alone in small closet-like rooms to control their behavior has led Oklahoma parents to withdraw their children from school, seek police intervention and take legal action," Jennifer Palmer reports for Oklahoma Watch.

School officials give the rooms benign-sounding names like “blue room,” “cool-down room” or “de-escalation room” and say they’re intended to provide a healthy temporary separation. But many parents and child advocates say the practice is like being locked in a closet, and some liken it to solitary confinement in prison. Students placed in the room often have special needs.

One father says his special-needs son was placed in a closet for timeout a dozen times in the first two weeks of classes at a Mustang elementary school. In the small Coal County district of Cottonwood, parents say the school placed their son in the narrow “blue room” multiple times for not minding his teacher when he was just 3 years old. Lawsuits have been filed over schools in Cottonwood, Ardmore, Edmond, and likely elsewhere.

Thank you Senator Cruz! Massive win for #Homeschool families who will now be able to save their own money in their own 529 Plan Accounts for homeschool expenses! And @VP cast the tie-breaking vote! https://t.co/a1CLwVGND8

Monday, December 4, 2017

"[E]verything about public education is political," OEA president Alicia Priest pointed out last year. "The reforms, the elected school board, the State Superintendent of Public Instruction, the standards, your salary and benefits, the textbooks that are approved for your use—ALL politically driven decisions."

When a nation has within its DNA laws regulating who can learn, with whom one can learn, and where one can learn, then the idea that a school ought not engage in the political realm reeks of forced naïveté.

As long as our school systems are funded within halls of state legislatures that maintain 21st-century houses of education for zip codes of wealth, and crumbling school houses for zip codes of poverty, then it is disingenuous at best to assert that schools exists outside the realm of political discourse.

Friday, December 1, 2017

"The National Education Association just filed its 2016-2017 financial disclosure with the U.S. Department of Labor—and it is clear that the nation’s largest teachers’ union is spending even more to maintain its influence in education policy," RiShawn Biddle writes ("NEA's $151 Million Influence Spree").

But the union’s efforts didn’t succeed everywhere. ... NEA also failed in Oklahoma, where it gave $750,000 to Oklahoma’s Children Our Future, which unsuccessfully pushed Question 779, which would have levied a one percent sales tax for additional school funding.

I saw your story on FOX 23. Given that TPS employs more non-teachers (3,258) than teachers (2,377), it’s pretty clear that the money isn’t getting to the classroom. I don’t know if you’ve ever seen the TPS organizational chart, but it really is a sight to behold. TPS employs 22 individuals with salaries in excess of $100,000—several of whom have the job title “executive assistant.”

The surprising truth is that, even when adjusted for inflation, TPS per-student spending in 2016 ($12,180) is only down slightly from a decade ago ($12,261). But the money hasn’t gone to teacher salaries or to classroom supplies. Indeed, using data that the Oklahoma State Department of Education reports to the U.S. Department of Education, economist Benjamin Scafidi points out that between 1993 and 2014, TPS enrollment decreased by 3 percent and the number of teachers decreased by 4 percent—but non-teaching staff increased by 147 percent.

I think it would make sense for policymakers to redirect some of the current money towards the classroom.

Wednesday, November 22, 2017

"The former head football coach at Douglass Mid-High School has been fired because of an undisclosed impropriety," The Oklahoman reports.

"The State Board of Education and Oklahoma State Department of Education consider student safety paramount," Brad Clark, general counsel for the state Board of Education, said in a statement Tuesday. "After receiving a report that student safety had been jeopardized at Douglass Mid-High School, the State Board acted to suspend Mr. Alexander's teaching certificate on August 24, 2017, pending a full investigation and resolution thereof."

"A teacher accused of 'inappropriate conduct' is scheduled to return to the classroom Monday, nearly two months after being suspended with pay," The Oklahoman reports.

Beth Harrison, the district's chief communications officer, declined to disclose the name of the teacher nor the nature of the allegation, which was reported by students. "OKCPS investigated the allegations and took appropriate action," Harrison said in a statement. "Now, the decision has been made for the teacher to return to full duty effective Monday, November 27, 2017. As always, the safety of OKCPS students and staff is our top priority."

Tuesday, November 21, 2017

"An investigation is underway after police say a 12-year-old student attacked a teacher at a school in Oklahoma City," KSWO reports.

According to authorities, the 12-year-old suffers from a behavioral disorder and had refused to wear his school uniform. According to court documents, he punched his teacher in the side of the face before punching and kicking out glass windows and ripping out a water fountain.

A police report says the teacher was unable to restrain the student due to a district policy. "During this rampage the kid was on, when he broke one of the windows, he sustained a severe cut on the calf of one of his legs. That basically brought this action to an end,” Sgt. Gary Knight with the Oklahoma City Police Department explained.

"Mary Josephson says she's frustrated and scared after learning that a Memorial Junior High School student gave out a drug to several people last week," the News on 6 reports.

Josephson’s son, who goes to Memorial Junior High, told her that it was a chaotic scene. "People were throwing up, some people were high and some people were like zombies,” said Josephson. Josephson says she believes the district should've notified all parents of students at the school.

Tuesday, November 14, 2017

"Our results suggest that burdensome packages of regulations likely limit schooling choices in an unfortunate way," Corey A. DeAngelis and Lindsey Burke write. "Policymakers and school choice advocates interested in establishing a robust universe of education options that are responsive to family needs and preferences should limit red tape and enable private schools to retain their unique identity and character."

Friday, November 10, 2017

"For decades, we've heard opponents of school choice claim that the government school monopoly is our only protection against 'jihad schools' that will teach children to hate and kill," Greg Forster wrote last year. "In all that time, you know what we haven't seen? Jihad schools, operating in any of the nation's 59 private school choice programs across 28 states."

Some commentators argue that private religious schools are less likely to inculcate the attributes of good citizenship than traditional public schools, specifically proposing that private Islamic schools are relatively more likely to produce individuals sympathetic to terrorism. This study offers a preliminary examination of the question by studying the educational backgrounds of Western-educated terrorists. While data are limited, in accord with prior work findings indicate the vast majority of both Islamic and reactionary terrorists attended traditional public schools and had no religious education; hence findings suggest that early religious training and identification may actually encourage prosocial behavior.

Wednesday, November 8, 2017

"No previous research has directly examined the relationship between attending a public or private school as a child and people’s attitudes toward Jews when they become adults," Jay P. Greene and Ian Kingsbury write.

This article sheds new light on this issue by using a large, nationally representative survey of over 1,500 adults in the United States to see how childhood schooling is related to adult anti-Semitism. It finds that even after controlling for a variety of background characteristics, people who attended private schools exhibit more positive attitudes toward Jews than those who attended public schools.

"A teacher previously employed at a northwest Oklahoma school allegedly solicited nude photographs of a 14-year-old student whom he once coached in basketball," the Tulsa World reports.

Vincent Chad Warford, 45, a former teacher at Freedom Public Schools in Woods County, allegedly contacted the former student in September, requesting salacious photos, according to court records. Tulsa County deputies arrested Warford on Tuesday at his Glenpool apartment. According to his arrest report, Warford is on administrative leave from Liberty Public Schools. Liberty schools Superintendent Jim Gilmartin said the district is aware of the charges and that they put the safety of their students as the highest priority.

Tuesday, October 24, 2017

"With new test score standards that state education officials believe are more in line with national standards, the majority of Oklahoma students lack proficiency in all but one subject area tested," Ben Felder reports in The Oklahoman.

An average of 63 percent of Oklahoma students scored below proficient in the 18 state-required tests issued last school year in grades third through eighth, and 10th grade. The 10th-grade U.S. history test was the only exam where a majority—slightly over 50 percent—of students scored as proficient or advanced.

Most Oklahoma students lack the basic subject-level knowledge the state now requires, according to the statewide scores released Wednesday.

The Tulsa World provides the results for some Tulsa-area school districts (see table below) and also provides results for specific schools in Tulsa.

These results are woeful, to be sure, though Oklahoma's education officials do deserve credit for finally working to close the honesty gap. This is something OCPA has been recommending for more than 11 years.

With taxpayers spending $9,781 per-pupil annually to get results like this, it's no wonder two in three Oklahomans say they're not getting a good return on their investment.

Monday, October 23, 2017

Some Oklahomans want to spend more money on education. Others prefer more school choice. But as Oklahoma City University law professor Andrew Spiropoulos points out, "it turns out that if you invest in choice programs, you can free up a lot of cash for public schools."

"Oklahoma’s education establishment and click-addicted media benefit from public hysteria about a 'teacher shortage' and 'emergency certifications,'" Greg Forster writes. "But the general consensus is that the empirical research does not find evidence of educational value—at all—to teacher certification requirements. These arbitrary and educationally useless requirements do nothing to improve educational quality, and much to hinder schools’ ability to hire teachers."

"The prevailing narrative about government-run schools," the Cato Institute reminds us, is that they "harmoniously bring together people from various racial, ethnic, and religious backgrounds and instill in their children the civic values necessary for a pluralist democracy. In reality, however, government schooling often forces citizens into political combat. Different families have different priorities on topics ranging from academics and the arts to questions of morality and religion. No single school can possibly reflect the wide range of mutually exclusive views on these fundamental subjects."

Unsurprisingly, we see this conflict in public schools here in a Bible Belt state where Barack Obama twice won 0 of 77 counties. In the Mid-Del school district, for example, there's a history teacher named Aaron Baker who describes himself as a "proud liberal progressive public school teacher" who promotes "radical social justice in Oklahoma public schools." How radical? Mr. Baker believes educators should avoid using male and female pronouns. He believes that some opinions—such as views he deems "anti-gay hate speech"—"should not be allowed to be heard."

To his credit, Mr. Baker doesn't hide what he's doing. "I teach my students that the phrase 'law and order' is steeped in systemic racism," he recently informed us. "I teach my students that concentrated wealth multiplies poverty. ... I teach my students that the greatest nuclear threat the world has ever seen is the United States of America."

Mr. Baker is not a supporter of school choice—earlier this year he encouraged people to "agitate and disrupt" a school choice summit—but in truth he illustrates better than anyone why we so desperately need it. "In a market-based education system, parents can select the school most closely aligned with their priorities," Cato says. "By contrast, when these questions are decided through a political system, such as elected school boards, parents with differing views must struggle against each other to have the school reflect their views. Inevitably, some parents will lose that struggle. To add insult to injury, all citizens are forced to pay for the government-run schools through their taxes, even when those schools are antagonistic toward their most deeply held values."

"Outlining his own case of cyberbullying, a high school student urged Edmond School Board members and administrators to do more to combat the problem," Steve Gust reports for The Oklahoman.

Drew O'Daniel, a sophomore at Edmond Memorial High School, was granted five minutes to speak to the five-member board during its regular meeting Monday night. ... O'Daniel's comments came a month after his mother, Cara O'Daniel, requested the school board do more about bullying prevention. She and another mom, Julie Daniel, told the board there still were too many incidents of bullying in the Edmond school district.

Edmond public information director Susan Parks-Schlepp said the district policy has strict guidelines against bullying and takes every reported case seriously. Yet, neither Drew nor Cara O'Daniel believed their concerns were taken seriously by the district. ... He explained his was not an isolated incident. He cited the case of a girl, who attended Edmond schools but is now home schooled because of being taunted. He made his comments at the beginning of Monday's meeting when 150 to 200 other students and school patrons were present because of pending recognition for National Merit Semi-Finalists and the Edmond North High School state championship cheer team.

After he spoke to the board, the room applauded. While being interviewed, two school patrons he didn't know offered him free counseling, as well as free martial arts training. "What I really want is for the school board and the administrators to do more about bullying," he said.

Both Edmond Superintendent Bret Towne and Memorial Principal Tony Rose said they could not comment on the case. Yet, Towne, after the meeting, admitted the overall issue was still under review. "We know we have a ways to go," he said.

A billboard in Edmond, Jan. 24, 2012

Well, yes. And how soon might the problem be solved? What shall bullied students and their parents do in the meantime? One Edmond parent told a reporter seven years ago, "On one front your child’s spirit is broken, and there is no more frustrating feeling than watching your child be abused. The other front is the fact that the school administration just wants you and the problem to go away."

The problems persist, even in Edmond. The district has a very good reputation—indeed, the average student in Edmond is performing better in math than 65 percent of students in the nation and 54 percent of students in other developed economies—but that doesn't mean every school is a good fit for every child, especially children who are being bullied.

I'm sure most Edmond parents and students are satisfied with their school. Others simply would like to see the district do more to address bullying. But for bullied students who need help now, they deserve (even if they opt not to use it) a ticket out in the form of a voucher, a tax credit, or an education savings account.

Wednesday, October 4, 2017

"The University of Oklahoma's mandatory student 'diversity training' is a horrifying recital of coercive tactics, clearly designed not to educate students about diversity (which would be valuable) so much as to manipulate, threaten, and control them so they don’t think the wrong things," Greg Forster writes.

Today we had discussions regarding the Oklahoma School Testing Program (OSTP) and the 2017 test scores. Below are some of the major take-aways from the 2017 testing reset:

The 2017 Oklahoma School Testing Program (OSTP) results will post on Oct. 11. Districts will receive paper copies the week of Nov. 27.

This year's testing results serve as the baseline year for ESSA accountability.

Our state-level assessment scores now align with the ACT, SAT and NAEP.

Our school district testing data will be in the same format as in previous years.

Expect a significant decrease in the number of students who score proficient or higher due to the new standards, assessments, and definitions for performance levels.

This year is a total reset and the OSTP scores cannot be compared to previous years.

Expect steady, incremental growth in test scores moving forward.

Please remember that teachers had only one year to teach the new standards in science, ELA and math; and that the new test scores do not reflect on the effectiveness of our schools or that our students are less skilled than before. The new test scores do mean that our students are being held to a higher standard that will better prepare them for college and career.

TPS is a great school district with outstanding educators! We are ready and willing to meet the challenge of preparing our students for a bright future!

Whether or not TPS is "a great school district" is, of course, open to debate. According to researchers at the George W. Bush Institute, the average student in Tahlequah is performing better in math than 43 percent of students in the nation and 32 percent of students in other developed economies. In any case, let's hope Tahlequah and every other Oklahoma district is indeed ready and willing to succeed.UPDATE:

The TPS superintendent says parents should not be alarmed. But if the majority of Tahlequah students lack proficiency in every subject (which is what the results will likely show), why shouldn't parents be alarmed?

"No reasonable person believes that the level of student performance is a reliable proxy for school quality," Jay Greene reminds us. "Instead, the level of performance is largely a function of the severity of disadvantage among the students."

Saturday, September 30, 2017

"An alleged plan to carry out a shooting at the Sapulpa high school and junior high campuses was reported to police Saturday," the News on 6 reports.

School administrations, working in coordination with Sapulpa Police, are actively investigating the alleged threat.

Assistant Superintendent Johnny Bilby said, “Sapulpa Public Schools take all threats seriously. The safety of our students and staff are our top priority.” He also said there will be an increased police presence at the schools on Monday.

Educational choice gives parents the right to use the tax dollars associated with their child’s education to send their child to the public or private school which best serves their needs. Generally speaking, would you say you support or oppose the concept of educational choice?

Fully 65 percent of those surveyed say they support using tax dollars to send their child to a school of choice, whereas 28 percent oppose. Oklahoma Republicans, Democrats, and Independents all support educational choice—with the Republican tally coming in at 76 percent to 17 percent.

Wednesday, September 20, 2017

"A school bus driver for Vian Public Schools is currently under investigation, according to Superintendent Victor Salcedo," KFSM reports. "Salcedo said the bus driver is accused of giving a hitchhiker and a dog a ride on their bus while students were on board on September 12."

One parent, Naticia Drew, says she has had problems with this particular driver before. "The kids have been late for 45 minutes because they told me she felt like she needed to call on some horses or some dogs that were sick and wait on animal control to get there."

Deer Creek has a well-deserved reputation as one of the best public school districts in Oklahoma. For example, the average student in Deer Creek is performing better in math than 72 percent of students in Oklahoma, according to researchers at the George W. Bush Institute. Moreover, the average student in Deer Creek is performing better in math than 67 percent of students in the United States and better than 56 percent of students in other developed economies.

Unsurprisingly, many parents want to live in the district. The Oklahoman noted last week that Deer Creek's enrollment is increasing. With that in mind, policymakers should always be aware that private-school choice policies (vouchers, tax credits, ESAs, etc.) can serve as a "pressure release valve" in high-growth areas like Deer Creek.

Wednesday, September 13, 2017

"The success of Oklahoma's Lindsey Nicole Henry Scholarship Program proves that when customers have power, providers are more responsive and service improves," the state's largest newspaper editorializes. "This is breaking news only in government."

Critics of the scholarship program argue parents aren't capable of figuring out if their child is properly served in a private school, but then argue those same parents are fully capable of navigating federal, state and local bureaucracies to obtain an improvement in services not being rendered in a public school. If you can do the latter, then obviously you can do the former.

"The status quo isn't acceptable," the state's largest newspaper notes today. "When 42 percent of Oklahoma's high school graduates have little chance of succeeding in college, the chances for state prosperity are similarly limited."

Monday, September 11, 2017

Jonathan Small and I have a new post over at OCPA about media bias in Oklahoma. Whether through story selection or the choice of narrative framework, journalists don't always report the news fully and fairly. Moreover:

It’s not just what stories they choose to write (think of The New York Times slogan “All the news that’s fit to print”) and how they construct those stories. It’s also what stories they choose not to write.

Here’s an example. When a public opinion poll in 2015 showed voter opposition to school vouchers, a reporter for the Tulsa World correctly deemed it newsworthy and reported the findings. But last month when OCPA sent this same reporter the results of a new survey showing strong support for Education Savings Accounts and other forms of private-school choice, she replied tersely: “Wayne Greene, opinion pages editor, is your contact at the Tulsa World.” In other words, all the news that fits, we print. Anything else is just your opinion.

Now granted, newspapers are entitled to evaluate newsworthiness and make their own publishing decisions. Still, this hardly seems like an appropriate response from a reporter to a source.

Saturday, August 26, 2017

"A mother alleges in a civil rights lawsuit that Western Heights Public Schools failed to 'properly investigate and report claims of sexual misconduct' after her developmentally disabled daughter was victimized by a teacher," The Oklahomanreports.

The federal lawsuit filed this month in Oklahoma City also alleges the school district created a "hostile educational environment" in which the daughter was subjected to sexual harassment and retaliation. ...

"The school district has absolutely failed my daughter and they failed my family," the mother, a former Western Heights district employee, told The Oklahoman on Friday. "I trusted them with everything I had and this was going on under their nose. ...

The lawsuit alleges "a pattern of inappropriate conduct" by the Western Heights district and refers to "at least five former coaches and teachers (having) been charged, some sentenced, for sexual contact with students." ...

"It's time that the situation at Western Heights be revealed for what it is — an atmosphere where coaches and teachers have been allowed to have sex with their students," said Cameron Spradling, the attorney representing the mother.

"That has to stop at Western Heights, and it has to stop at all other schools in Oklahoma. No one has any doubt that teachers and coaches having sex with students has run rampant in Oklahoma."

Sadly, it's not just the grown-ups. "Based on what I heard from my constituents," writes former state Rep. Rebecca Hamilton (D-Oklahoma City), "sexual harassment of girls in our public schools is close to being pro forma. ...Your daughter has a much better chance of growing up to be a strong, independent young woman if she can skip this abuse during her formative years."

Thursday, August 24, 2017

Byron Schlomach (Ph.D. in economics, Texas A&M University) is the state policy director for the 1889 Institute, an independent research organization. He is also a scholar-in-residence at the Institute for the Study of Free Enterprise at Oklahoma State University. This useful chart prepared by Dr. Schlomach provides some much-needed historical context.

"After this past week, any fair observer must worry that the leaders of the Oklahoma City Public School District lack both the intellectual understanding and political skills to run the district effectively," Andrew C. Spiropoulos writes.

Instead of looking in the mirror, the school board announced this week that its solution to the district’s serial failures was to file a lawsuit against the state for allegedly underfunding the schools. Let’s begin with the fact that Oklahoma courts have consistently and wisely held that the constitution exclusively vests the authority to determine the proper level of school funding in the Legislature.

Even more infuriating than the board’s vacuous legal arguments are its dishonest factual ones. The board claims that the Legislature has cut common school funding when, in fact, in the face of a vicious recession in the energy industry, it has increased appropriations from $2.37 billion in 2013 to $2.43 billion in 2018. While almost every other state agency has had its budget seriously slashed, the state Legislature has prioritized common education, sparing it from cuts time and time again. The most brazen lie told by the board was the fantasy that the Legislature cut funding for textbooks, when, in fact, upon request by the educators themselves, all it did was provide schools the flexibility to spend the same pool of money on what the schools thought most important. Lies, no matter how often they are repeated, remain lies. Let’s not even discuss how inept you have to be, in the face of the emotions unleashed by the crimes and conflict of Charlottesville, to suggest changing the names of schools without first researching what they really are.

Filing bogus lawsuits, carelessly indulging in political correctness, pining after destructive tax increases – these are the hallmarks of the unreconstructed left. In the past, the district’s leaders, no matter their personal ideology, have never been so stupid as to gratuitously alienate the conservatives who dominate the political, social and economic establishment of this city and, for almost two decades, have faithfully supported the district. Those days appear to be gone, and, as night follows day, barring change, the support will go as well.

Coyle superintendent Josh Sumrall is even more emphatic. "We love it here, all of the parents and community. There's literally not one person that's come into my office or sent a letter saying it doesn't work for them. ... Parents have told me, 'Don't take this from us.'"

"I know it's not for every district in the state, but we really like it," Sumrall says. "If we can make this work, leave us alone and let us do it."

"I would wager if we took a poll tomorrow of people in Copan who want to go back to a five-day week, I don’t think we would have enough support for it in the community," Copan High School principal Chris Tanner tells the Bartlesville Examiner-Enterprise.

Thursday, August 17, 2017

Nearly two in three Oklahoma voters support using tax dollars to choose the public or private school which best meets their child’s needs.

That’s one of the findings in a new survey commissioned by OCPA just as the new school year gets under way. The statewide survey of 1,016 likely Oklahoma voters was conducted by the firm Cor Strategies and has a margin of error of plus-minus 3.07 percent. The survey question wording is below. To see a summary of the results, click here. To see the methodology, click here.

“If you could select any type of school in order to obtain the best education for your child, what type of school would you select?”

While 47 percent say they would choose a traditional public school, the majority of Oklahomans would choose something else. Specifically, 30 percent would choose a private school, 12 percent would choose homeschooling, and 11 percent would choose a charter school. Whether in Oklahoma City, Tulsa, or the rest of the state, fewer than half of respondents say they would choose a traditional public school in order to obtain the best education for their child.

“According to data from the Oklahoma Cost Accounting System, public education spending in Oklahoma is approximately $9,700 per student per year. Would you say that taxpayers are getting a good return on their investment?”

Only 22 percent of respondents think taxpayers are getting a good return on their annual investment in public education (expenditure summary file here), whereas 66 percent do not. This gloomy take on ROI cuts across party lines, being shared by Republicans (69 percent), Democrats (60 percent), and Independents (68 percent).

“A proposal has been made to move local school board and school bond elections to the general election date in November. Some people support the idea, believing it would increase voter turnout for these school elections and make it harder for education interest groups to influence the outcome. Other people oppose the idea, believing that the school elections would get lost on a crowded ballot and it would make them more partisan. Do you support or oppose moving school board and school bond elections to the general election date in November?”

Oklahomans support this idea by a margin of 53 percent to 35 percent. Democrats oppose the idea (45 percent to 42 percent), but Republicans (58 percent to 31 percent) and Independents (63 percent to 24 percent) are in support.

“Educational choice gives parents the right to use the tax dollars associated with their child’s education to send their child to the public or private school which best serves their needs. Generally speaking, would you say you support or oppose the concept of educational choice?”

Fully 65 percent of respondents support using tax dollars to send their child to a school of choice, whereas 28 percent oppose. (Interestingly, 44 percent strongly support the idea while 15 percent strongly oppose.) Republicans, Democrats, and Independents all support educational choice—with the Republican tally coming in at 76 percent to 17 percent.

“A proposal has been made to give parents the chance to customize their child’s education through Education Savings Accounts, or ESAs. With an ESA, the state puts the funds it would have spent on a child’s behalf into a bank account the parent controls. The parent can then use these funds to purchase the education that best meets their child’s needs from a wide variety of sources, including private schools, virtual schools, and institutions of higher education. Any funds not used in a school year could be carried over for future education, including college. Would you say that you support or oppose Oklahoma having a program like this one?”

A poll, of course, is only a snapshot of public opinion at the time the survey is taken. This newest snapshot does, however, add to a growing body of evidence. In addition to this Cor Strategies survey, here are the recent survey data which have shown strong support for ESAs and other forms of private-school choice:

"I think the first line of accountability is frankly with the parents," U.S. Secretary of Education Betsy DeVos recently told the Associated Press.

When parents are choosing school they are proactively making that choice. And schools are accountable to the parents. And vice versa, the students doing well and working to achieve in the schools. I think it’s important for parents to have information about how their students are doing, how they’re achieving, how they’re progressing. And that kind of transparency and accountability I think is really the best approach to holding schools accountable broadly. It starts with holding themselves accountable to communication of relevant and important information to students and parents about how they are doing. And we know from, that when parents choose and they are unhappy with whatever the school setting is they will choose something different. And that’s the beauty of having choices.

Monday, August 14, 2017

The Muskogee Phoenix carries an Associated Press story with this lede: "The parents of an 8-year-old Ohio boy who hanged himself from his bunk bed with a necktie want school officials held responsible, testing the issue of school liability in suicides blamed on bullying."

Friday, August 11, 2017

Parents should evaluate local schools, public and private, and select the one that aligns best with their views and goals. Of course, parents don’t have an equal choice as long as the government uses its tax power to offer free schools while alternatives need to charge tuition. We need school choice policies to make real choices available.

McAlester Public Schools recently paid $18,500 to hear motivational speaker Ron Clark, the founder of a highly acclaimed private school in Atlanta. Granted, the district should be commended for realizing that no one education sector—be it public, private, or home—has all the answers. But does that amount seem excessive?

Tuesday, August 8, 2017

As the new school year approaches, Will Hutchison reports for KSWO, teachers in the Elgin Public Schools "are having to spend hundreds of dollars of their own money just to make their classrooms operational."

Here's hoping KSWO or some other media outlet will do a follow-up story asking the question: Why can't Elgin afford school supplies? Consider:

According to data compiled from the Oklahoma Cost Accounting System and provided on the website of the Oklahoma State Department of Education, total education spending in Elgin (even when adjusted for inflation) is nearly double what it was a decade ago. (Elgin's total education spending was $11,471,638 in 2006. It was $21,817,564 in 2016.)

Yes, student enrollment increased between 2006 and 2016. But even on a per-student basis (again, adjusted for inflation), Elgin's spending was substantially higher in 2016 ($9,677 per student) than it was in 2006 ($8,310 per student).

In the spending category called "Supplies," which includes "Classroom and/or Office Supplies," spending rose from $1,852,404 in 2006 to $2,534,502 in 2016.

Given these facts, why are some teachers having to spend hundreds of dollars of their own money on classroom supplies? I don't know the answer, but here's hoping some curious journalist will explore the matter with school board members and administrators.

Have school officials rolled up their sleeves and gone over the budget line by line? For example, have they privatized all non-teaching personnel? (The Bartlesville school board recently voted to outsource the schools’ janitorial services, a move the district CFO says will save $300,000 annually.) Have they taken a close look at the athletic budget? Have they considered renegotiating the contracts of underperforming teachers? (The average student in Elgin is performing better in math than 42 percent of students in other developed economies; surely Elgin parents demand better than that.)

If classroom supplies truly are a priority, then school officials—with nearly $22 million at their disposal—need to find a way to buy classroom supplies. Yes, it may require some difficult decisions, but setting priorities is the sort of thing the Elgin superintendent is paid $114,652 annually to do.

Tuesday, August 1, 2017

M.L. King, Jr. Elementary School in Oklahoma City is 89 percent black.

"If you want to make sure schools are segregated, the quickest and easiest way to do it is to force families into schools based on their ZIP codes," Greg Forster writes. "School choice is actually the only education policy with a serious hope of reducing segregation in schools."

Saturday, July 29, 2017

"Opponents of school choice programs often defend the traditional public school system by saying it must take 'all students,'" the state's largest newspaper points out today.

This isn't actually true, and there are many notable exceptions or caveats to that statement. A reminder was provided when it was recently reported that even within the Oklahoma City school district, students from one location are not guaranteed admission to another school in the same district. Principals alone make that determination, and there's no requirement to justify an approval or rejection. Furthermore, the district doesn't keep records on students who are denied a transfer or the demographics of those granted transfers. It's to their credit that local school leaders are now pushing for a standardized process that includes record keeping. One suspects that if records had been kept, you would find many schools even within Oklahoma City's district that don't always abide by a “come one, come all” approach to students.

Wednesday, July 26, 2017

"A civil lawsuit has been filed in Garvin County, Oklahoma alleging three former Norman North High School wrestlers, former coaches, and Norman Public School officials 'fostered an environment of hazing and assault within its wrestling program,'" Caleb Slinkard reports.

Monday, July 24, 2017

North Tulsa community leader Justin Pickard "said that based on a benchmark ACT score of 21 (out of 36), only 22 African-American senior boys were college-ready in Tulsa Public Schools in 2015," Bill Sherman reports in the Tulsa World.

A new report from the Center for American Progress (CAP), a leftist advocacy group, "plays fast and loose with the facts to offer a warped and historically inaccurate history of school choice," Frederick M. Hess writes.

Sarah Julian, the communications director for the Oklahoma Public School Resource Center, has a very interesting and encouraging article over at NonDoc this week. Headlined "Personalized Learning: Budget cuts spur new teaching model," the piece discusses personalized learning (PL), a new teaching model being adopted by many public school districts in Oklahoma and throughout the nation. She writes:

PL has gained traction nationwide not only for its ability to expand course options and engage students with a flexible learning schedule but also for the impressive student outcomes it produces. Gone is the "sage on the stage" lecture routine. Instead, PL provides students with a mix of digital and in-person instruction, which empowers teachers to serve as mentors and facilitators. Students are in the driver’s seat, where they have more responsibility and accountability for their own learning.

Staff with the Oklahoma Public School Resource Center (OPSRC) began working with school districts across the state in late 2015 to implement Oklahoma’s version of personalized learning: Momentum Schools. Momentum gives students the choice of how, when and where they attend school. For example, a school designates certain hours each day when the building is open. As long as students get their state-mandated 6.5 hours of seat time in each day, they can choose when to be physically present.

Further, instead of traditional group class time, students schedule meetings with individual teachers to assess schoolwork. Students work at their own pace to ensure they master the content. As a result, parents, teachers and, most importantly, students are excited about and engaged in their education, and their progress proves it. ...

With PL, though, students have a more extensive catalog of online courses from which to choose. Further, they can control the speed at which they learn the content. This means that many PL students are able to take far more classes than a traditional school setting would allow. And those students who need more time? They can work slower without the worry of falling behind or facing criticism from peers. In all, PL provides the opportunity for a richer educational experience for all students.

My only quibble has to do with the article's budgetary references, starting with the breathless lede: "Never in our state’s history have public schools been in such a dire financial crisis." That's not true, as economist Byron Schlomach has shown:

We're also told that schools have "no money in their coffers" and are "in the throes of extreme financial hardships." In truth, Oklahoma's education spending—in total and per-student—is higher than it was a decade ago, even when adjusted for inflation. In Chickasha, the one district mentioned in the article, total spending is down but per-pupil spending is up.

But those objections aside, I strongly recommend the piece and encourage you to read the whole thing here. If a teaching model can improve student learning, cut down on discipline problems, and deliver Mandarin Chinese and AP physics to kids from Boise City to Idabel, what's not to love?

Tuesday, July 11, 2017

"We have had so many amazing experiences as a homeschooling family," Tahlequah mom Tavia Armstrong tells the Tahlequah Daily Press, "but probably my favorite thing of all was being able to serve other families."

"I love kids, and as one of the leaders of the local homeschooling community, I have been able to witness transformations in children," said Armstrong. "I've seen kids who were bullied in school make connections and find best friends. I've watched kids who were behind in school, often just because they had a hard time sitting still, get inspired and discover intellectual gifts they didn't know they had. I've seen kids so shy they wouldn't even speak bloom before my eyes into social butterflies."

Political activist Angela Clark Little identifies as a Republican. Interestingly, however, last year her PAC, Oklahomans for Public Education, actively supported several Democratic legislative candidates over Republicans. Moreover, Little once acknowledged that she endorsed a Republican candidate in order to boost the Democrat's chances of winning the general election. And as recently as last month Little joined with former Gov. David Walters and a who's who of Democratic luminaries to help raise money for Democratic gubernatorial candidate Drew Edmondson.

You would think an associate dean at the University of Oklahoma would do his homework, but Lawrence Baines (Point of View, July 7) was clearly more intent on defending his institution's gatekeeping status for public school teachers than in telling the truth. His evidence against “emergency” certification, referred to as “exceptions” by the Oklahoma Department of Education, and better characterized as an alternative certification system, is really no evidence at all. While Baines is correct to equate teacher certification to occupational licensing, he also equates such regulation with consumer protection even though economists have pointed out for decades that licensing does more to harm consumers than protect them. He cites a real scholar, economist Eric Hanushek, regarding the dangers posed by ineffective teachers, giving the impression that Hanushek would take Baines' position in favor of traditional certification. Hanushek is actually quite critical of teacher certification and notes that certification purposely excludes many who could be effective in the classroom. Hanushek would be first to point out that the bulk of ineffective teachers are traditionally certified.

Baines cites statistics regarding teacher misconduct in Texas with not one shred of evidence that the increased misconduct numbers have anything to do with their alternative certification system. The numbers in Texas would be expected to rise for no other reason than the growth they have experienced, but Baines doesn't bother to compare rates of growth in teacher numbers and incident numbers. He wrote propaganda, not facts.

Wednesday, July 5, 2017

In a recent column published in The Oklahoman ["Oklahoma’s (missing) $8,872 teacher pay raise"], economist Benjamin Scafidi cited federal data showing that a decades-long employment surge of non-teaching staff (in Oklahoma and nationwide) has far outpaced student enrollment growth. Scafidi, who earned his Ph.D. in economics from the University of Virginia, is a professor of economics at Kennesaw State University. He is also a Friedman Fellow with EdChoice, a nonprofit organization founded by Milton and Rose D. Friedman.

One commenter is not a fan of Dr. Scafidi's article:

If nothing else Mr. Payne's comment should elicit a wry smile. Scafidi makes the case that teachers haven't gotten pay raises because non-teaching bloat has swallowed up the money. Then, as if to prove Scafidi's point, straight out of central casting comes a critic: a generously compensated non-teacher with a title that could have come from one of those parodic bureaucratic-job-title generators. Unlike teachers in the Union school district, Mr. Payne receives an annual salary of $99,220—as well as a six percent on-call stipend, paid teacher retirement of seven percent, a paid life insurance policy of $80,000, paid health, dental, and disability insurance, and 20 days of vacation.

Mr. Payne's comment raises some questions.

(1) He says Scafidi's article is "not in line with the reality inside Oklahoma schools." But according to the latest data reported by the Oklahoma State Department of Education to the National Center for Education Statistics at the U.S. Department of Education, Union has more non-teachers (1,036) than teachers (828). Why is that? And why did Union's non-teaching staff grow by 150 percent over the past two decades while the number of students increased by 49 percent?

(2) He says Scafidi's "numbers are highly suspect." How so? After all, they are numbers reported by the Oklahoma Department of Education to the U.S. Department of Education. Is Payne implying that Oklahoma bureaucrats have done something suspicious? Federal bureaucrats? Dr. Scafidi? A drive-by accusation is not sufficient; if Payne believes the numbers are suspect, he should explain why.

(3) He says Dr. Scafidi's "premise is baloney." Again, please elaborate: What is his premise, and why is it baloney?

(4) He says Ed Choice "has a vested interest in making public schools look bad." Here's what EdChoice says in its latest publication of Dr. Scafidi's findings:

EdChoice is committed to research that adheres to high scientific standards, and matters of methodology and transparency are taken seriously at all levels of our organization. We are dedicated to providing high-quality information in a transparent and efficient manner. ... All individuals have opinions, and many organizations (like our own) have specific missions or philosophical orientations. Scientific methods, if used correctly and followed closely in well-designed studies, should neutralize these opinions and orientations. Research rules and methods minimize bias. We believe rigorous procedural rules of science prevent a researcher’s motives, and an organization’s particular orientation, from pre-determining results. If research adheres to proper scientific and methodological standards, its findings can be relied upon no matter who has conducted it. If rules and methods are neither specified nor followed, then the biases of the researcher or an organization may become relevant, because a lack of rigor opens the door for those biases to affect the results. The author welcomes any and all questions related to methods and findings.

Again, Payne's vague drive-by accusation is unsatisfactory. Is he implying, as with the "propaganda" and "highly suspect" remarks, that Scafidi's research is inaccurate?

My colleague Trent England will be discussing these matters on his radio program. (Be sure to listen to Trent weekday mornings from 7:00 to 9:00 on AM 1640 The Eagle, with the TuneIn app on your phone, or at KZLSAM.com.) If Mr. Payne would like to elaborate on his comment, he has an open invitation to do so on The Trent England Show.

One more question. Despite Union's per-student spending of $11,566 (higher than it was a decade ago, even when adjusted for inflation), the average Union student is performing better in math than 55 percent of students in Oklahoma, 49 percent of students in the nation, and only 38 percent of students in other developed economies. Is this performance good enough to justify the Union superintendent's total annual compensation of $238,728?

Educational Choice in a Nutshell

The end goal of “public education” is an educated public. There are many different means to an end. Educational choice refers to any policy that allows parents to choose the safest and best schools for their children, whether those schools are government-operated or privately operated.

In a free society, the government rightly defers to parents when it comes to raising their children. And since education is simply a subset of parenting, the government should defer to parents when it comes to educating their children. Parents, not government officials, have the moral right to determine their child’s path.

Comments Policy

The views expressed in these posts are those of the bloggers and do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of any institution. The goal of this blog is to create an open discussion about education reform (most notably parental choice) in Oklahoma. All feedback is welcome as long as it includes the commenter's name and doesn't violate the common rules of netiquette.